LOS ANGELES — Actress Lindsay Lohan, rapper Akon and several other other celebrities have agreed to pay tens of 1000’s of bucks to settle claims they promoted crypto investments to their hundreds of thousands of social media fans with out disclosing they had been being paid to take action.
Lohan, Akon, recording artists Ne-Yo, and Lil Yachty, boxer and web character Jake Paul, and grownup movie performer Michele Mason all agreed to pay greater than $400,000 mixed in disgorgement, hobby and consequences to settle the claims, the Securities and Exchange Commission mentioned Wednesday.
None admitted or denied the SEC’s findings as a part of the agreement. Two other celebrities named within the SEC’s criticism, rapper Soulja Boy and pa singer Austin Mahone, didn’t succeed in a agreement with the SEC, the company mentioned.
In reaction to a request for remark, Lohan’s publicist Leslie Sloane mentioned the actress used to be contacted in March 2022, used to be ignorant of the disclosure requirement, and agreed to pay a high quality to get to the bottom of the subject. Lohan, who final week introduced she is pregnant, used to be referred to as to surrender the $10,000 she used to be paid, plus hobby, and pay a $30,000 high quality, in accordance an SEC criticism.
A spokeswoman for Paul declined to remark. Emails left with representatives for the other celebrities named within the SEC criticism weren’t right away returned Wednesday.
In the criticism filed through the SEC in federal court docket in New York, the company claims the celebs had been paid to advertise Tronix (TRX) and BitTorrent (BTT), each crypto asset securities that had been presented on the market through 3 firms owned through Justin Sun, a Chinese nationwide. Sun is the everlasting consultant of Grenada to the World Trade Organization and is also residing in Singapore or Hong Kong, in line with the criticism.
Starting at round August 2017, Sun allegedly presented to promote billions within the unregistered securities and engaged in manipulative buying and selling, whilst additionally developing secondary markets on which Tronix and BitTorrent might be traded, in line with the criticism.
“Although the celebrities were paid to promote TRX and BTT, their touts on social media did not disclose that they had been paid or the amounts of their payments,” in line with the criticism. “Thus, the public was misled into believing that these celebrities had unbiased interest in TRX and BTT, and were not merely paid spokespersons.”
Many celebrities and athletes have used their affect and big social media followings to advertise cryptocurrencies lately, together with Matt Damon, Tom Brady and Reese Witherspoon. But doing so with out disclosing when they are being paid to take action is illegitimate, and has landed some large names in sizzling water with securities regulators. Last fall, Kim Kardashian agreed to pay a $1 million high quality to settle federal fees that she beneficial Ethereum Max tokens, a crypto safety, to her hundreds of thousands Instagram fans with out making transparent that she used to be paid to take action.
In 2020, actor Steven Seagal agreed to pay greater than $300,000 as a part of a equivalent agreement with the SEC, which additionally banned him from selling investments for 3 years.
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Entertainment Writer Andrew Dalton contributed to this file.
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